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Copyright Basics |
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What is Copyright?
Copyright is part of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code)
and international law that grants rights and protection to
authors and developers of creative works. Among the rights
granted are the rights to:
- reproduce the work;
- prepare derivative works based upon the work;
- distribute copies of the work to the public or perform the
work publicly,
- display the copyrighted work publicly,
- perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio
transmission and,
- assign these rights to others.
It should be clear that copyright only protects works that
are “fixed in a tangible form of expression.” Copyright does
not protect ideas or processes (although processes can be
patented).
To make use of copyright-protected material without the
consent of the author is a violation of the law. The
exceptions to this are works that have passed into the
public domain (materials older than the life of the author
plus 70 years) and works used in the manner prescribed under
the fair use part of the copyright law.
For additional information on Copyright Basics, visit the
U.S. Copyright Office, Copyright Basics web site,
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html.
For a more detailed explanation of public domain, see
When Works Pass into the
Public Domain (by Lolly Gasaway).
Fair Use
The concept of fair use refers to Section 107 of the
Copyright Act. It lays out in very broad terms the
conditions under which it is permissible to use
copyright-protected materials without first having to obtain
permission from the author or creator of the work. The
following is an excerpt from Section 107 of the 1976
Copyright Act:
The fair use of a copyrighted work… for purposes such as
criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including
multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research
is not an infringement of copyright.
In determining whether the use made of a work in any
particular case is a fair use, the factors to be considered
shall include:
- the purpose and character of the use, including whether
such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit
educational purposes;
- the nature of the copyrighted work;
- the amount and substantiality of the portion used in
relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
- the effect of the use upon the potential market for or
value of the copyrighted work.
All four factors must be taken into account when considering
using copyright-protected material and each use must be
considered individually. A use will be fair if the majority
of the four factors favor fair use. This analysis is
explained more fully below.
A part of the copyright law (Section 504(c)(2)) protects
people operating under the reasonable assumption that they
were operating under fair use. In order to qualify, you need
to be sure that you have carefully considered the criteria
for fair use. When considering using copyright-protected
materials, there are four criteria that need to be taken
into consideration.
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